Solar heating harnesses solar radiation emitted by the sun to provide solar thermal energy for various different domestic and commercial uses including solar hot water, solar space heating, and solar pool heaters. Among their attributes, solar heating systems conserve energy, reduce utility costs, and produce clean energy. Generally, solar heating systems convert solar radiation into usable or sensible heat. To that end, many conventional solar heating systems utilize a large area collector for absorbing heat from the solar radiation. The absorbed sensible heat is transferred to a fluid, which is subsequently transferred to the ventilated space inside a building.
Conventional solar heating systems may be integrated as a cladding directly into a southern-facing side wall of the building. However, the orientation of the southern-facing side wall of building established during construction of building may not be optimized to orient the collector relative to the track of the sun across the sky during daylight hours. Such conventional solar heating systems are also problematic if the southern-facing side wall is used as a building entrance, a loading dock, etc.
Tall buildings tend to derive the most benefit from such conventional solar heating devices. In particular, the surface area of the southern-facing wall increases with the height of the building. Although shorter buildings may lack a large-area southern-facing wall, their roofs may have a substantial surface area that cannot be effectively utilized by conventional solar heating systems.
What is needed, therefore, are solar heating systems and modules that are self-contained for versatility in application to supplying heated ventilation air to buildings.